Page 54 of Girl Going Nowhere

Hopefully.

Doubt weighing down my shoulders, I turn to the TV and say, “Turn it up. I like this show.”

Brodie hesitates, sighs, and then tosses me the remote before making his way toward the hall to his bedroom. Before he disappears, he looks at me and says, “You don’t have to bury anything for people’s approval. It wouldn’t make a difference to me.”

I know what he’s referring to.

Who.

But I refuse to acknowledge it.

When he realizes that, he swipes a hand through his hair defeatedly and walks away.

That night, I don’t slip into Finn’s room like I want to because then I’d be proving Brodie’s point.

I go to a bar.

Get drunk.

And find the first woman willing to take me back to her place to help me forget who I am.

Just for a little while.

It wouldn’t make a difference.

It would to me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Blake

Ican alwaystell when I did something wrong based on the expression painted on my mother’s face. Based on the slackened features carved into the full lips and narrow jawline I inherited from her, I’d say she’s seen the three new articles that have surfaced of Dover and me.

Even Sabrina has said it’s odd that nobody has published my name, which is why she’s digging into who the source is that’s sharing the photos. So far, I haven’t gotten any answers.

“Hi, Maia baby,” I greet, tickling the three-year-old in my mother’s arms. She giggles, making me smile despite the heaviness about to be put onto me. “Thanks for watching her.”

My mother doesn’t pass me Maia, but she does pass me a magazine with another grainy picture on the front. The only person recognizable in it is Jonathon Dover. The girl in the green dress next to him entering a hotel? It could be anybody.

“Deny, deny, deny,” Sabrina reminds me. “If they had the technology to make this image clearer, they would have by now. It doesn’t necessarily matter who’s protecting your identity as long as they keep doing it.”

I stare at the new cover like it’s the first time I’ve seen it, but it’s not. Finn and Brodie went out and bought every copy they could find in the immediate area before people I knew could find one.

I’m not optimistic that we’ll know who the leak is. The pictures were taken the weekend Emily and Hector got married, but that doesn’t narrow it down. There were hundreds of people attending the ceremony and hundreds more at Dover’s hotel who could have snapped photos if they recognized him.

“I didn’t think you believed in supporting tabloid fodder,” is my careful response, scanning the other ridiculous story headlines on the side and rolling my eyes. There are random stories about the president, aliens, and diet fads made famous by celebrities. Yet,I’mheadline news.

Maia begins squirming, bringing my attention back to her. I set the magazine down on the nearest table and take my daughter from the woman still staring at me inquisitively. She studies the two of us with narrowed eyes before sucking in a breath.

“What?” I ask, brushing Maia’s dark hair out of her face. She must have taken out the braids I put her in this morning because the wavy strands are frizzy and knotted.

Mom picks up the magazine in exasperation. “Are we really going to pretend this isn’t you? Am I supposed to stand here and play dumb while my daughter ruins her life again?”

Her words are a knife to the chest. When I saw those two pink lines on the pregnancy test, I thought I ruined my life too. But Maia saved me from a bad path that I was going down.

Doesn’t she see that by now?

Deny, deny, deny.“You know the people who write that stuff do it for money. They’re willing to say anything. See? You can read about a new type of alien species that the government discovered on page ten.”

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